RAF fighter jets escort plane diverted to Stansted

Military jets were scrambled to escort a plane to Stansted on Wednesday after it lost communication with air traffic control.

The RAF Typhoons were deployed after controllers were unable to communicate with the private plane.

It landed safely at Stansted at around 8pm.

A spokeswoman for for UK air traffic control company NATS said they lost voice communications with the aircraft, which was thought to have been heading for Heathrow, and is a Gulfstream small business jet.

According to the Essex Chronicle, she said: "We could not make voice contact with the plane.

"The plane was diverted into Stansted and it resulted in a runway closure of eight minutes."

The Daily Telegraph reports that a police statement said: "Military jets were deployed on a precautionary basis when a private jet was diverted to Stansted.

"This was due to a loss of communication with the aircraft. The aircraft landed safely at Stansted airport at 7.49pm.

"All three people who were on board have been spoken to by police, it was established that everything was in order and the police response was stood down."

Onlookers took to Twitter to discuss the scene, with one user, Thomas Webb, writing:

"Just seen an RAF typhoon flying over Bishops Stortford toward the Stansted Airport. Anything going on?"

According to the Herts and Essex Observer, The Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed that two Typhoon planes from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire had accompanied the plane to Stansted.

The paper added that a scheduled Ryanair flight from Alicante in Spain, which was due to arrive at 8pm, was diverted to Luton.

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